Outlook: With six returning starters, and young teams at traditional challengers Hononegah and Harlem, Boylan is favored to win its fourth consecutive conference title. “We believe we can compete to win the conference championship and make a deep postseason run,” coach Matt Weber said. “ We need some guys to step up on the mound to replace the guys we lost from last year, Danny Appino, Jake Sheley.”

Outlook: North has deep pitching and seven returners, led by four-year starter Kehrer (.407 batting average), Blake (.392) and Kolkmeyer (5-3, 41 strikeouts vs. 20 walks). The Blue Thunder have consistently been a top-five team in the NIC-10 and have an outside shot at winning their first conference title. “With seven returning players and a deep pitching rotation, I look for us to be in the thick of a tight conference race,” coach Dennis Kehrer said.

Outlook: The Indians return only three starters, but four-year starters Sims and Marquez might be the two best players in the conference. Even with pitcher Riley Pawelski, a third Division I recruit, out with a shoulder injury, the Indians (80-10 in the conference the last five years) remain a co-favorite with last year’s co-champion Boylan. “We have some depth at pitching, but now everyone moves up a slot and we have several players competing for those spots,” coach Matt Simpson said. “The conference as a whole has been improving each of the past couple of years, so it should be very competitive.”

Outlook: The E-Rabs were the league’s most surprising team in a decade last year, going from a bottom-three NIC-10 team for a dozen years in a row to a title contender for most of the season. East was tied with eventual co-champs Hononegah and Boylan after 10 games until losing back-to-back heart-breakers, 1-0 on an eighth-inning wild pitch to North and 3-2 on a two-run double with two outs in the bottom of the seventh at Boylan. The E-Rabs scored few runs and didn’t strike many batters out last year, but won with great defense. Fielding, and improved hitting, will be the keys again.

Outlook: Harlem brings back five starters from its first losing team in 16 years, but has only three seniors. Traditionally one of the league’s Big Three, Harlem (125-27 in the conference in 2004-12) looks more like a middle-of-the-pack team again this year. “This is the youngest and most inexperienced team I have ever coached,” coach Doug Livingston said. “Even with the lack of varsity playing time and uncertainty with our pitching, this team should be competitive.”

Outlook: Lass, who has verbally committed to Northwestern, gives the Bucs a chance to beat anyone when he pitches and makes Belvidere a wild card that could finish as high as third or fourth if things go right. “We are a much more athletic team this year,” coach Andrew Walters said. “If our pitchers stay healthy and our defense is consistent I feel we have a shot to compete with the top half of the conference.”

Outlook: The Pretzels made a surprise postseason run two years ago, coming within two innings of their first sectional title despite a losing record in the regular season, but never got untrack last year. A .500 finish would be a good season this year. “After a below average season in 2013, Freeport is rebuilding and working toward a winning season,” coach Roger Fegan said. “Our focus is process over outcome. If we continue to work on our process, the results will come.”

Outlook: Jefferson has won at least five conference games three of the last four years, after doing so only three of the previous 14 seasons. The J-Hawks continue to slowly improve and should be tough to beat when Wimberly pitches. “We are a very young team with a whole new coaching staff,” coach Jordan Shaver said. “We are excited to change the culture around the baseball program at Jefferson.”

Outlook: Last season snapped a string of nine consecutive winning seasons in the conference for Guilford, and with only three returning starters and a new coach, the Vikings are probably rebuilding again. “Our main goal throughout the entire program is to work our way out of the middle of the conference and back toward the top,” coach Adam Lewis said.

Outlook: The Knights have only one senior, but a couple of juniors are in their third season on varsity and Orput, who started last year’s opener as a freshman before missing the rest of the season with an injury, returns. “We will be young, but we have more experience at key positions,” coach Hosea Harris said. “I think we’re going to surprise a few teams and have a pretty solid season.”

It could be a wild and jumbled baseball season in a conference dominated by Boylan, Harlem and Hononegah for a decade.

Boylan returns six starters, but not its top two pitchers, from its two-time defending NIC-10 champs.

Hononegah, which tied with Boylan last year, has the returning league MVP in NIU-bound pitcher Donovin Sims, but only two other starters back and Illinois State recruit Riley Pawelski is out for the season after having Tommy John surgery on his pitching elbow.

Harlem has only three seniors and is coming off its first losing season in 16 years.

Belvidere North returns seven players, but only four started and the Blue Thunder has never finished higher than last year’s third-place showing.

Belvidere has junior right-hander Tyler Lass, who has verbally committed to Northwestern to become a rare local Big Ten recruit.

And then there is East, which returns seven starters from a team that was tied with Hononegah and Boylan halfway through last season after finishing in the bottom three in the league 12 years in a row.

That leaves Boylan as the favorite and North the likely runner-up, but it’s not nearly as clear-cut as in past years.

“I always love to have that star pitcher,” said Boylan coach Matt Weber, who once WAS that pitcher, leading Boylan to a state runner-up finish in 2003. “It’s nice to have those as a weapon. It makes it easier when you know you can count on that guy in a one-game scenario.

“None of our guys is going to go out and wow you with their stuff, but Joe Fehrle and Will Troia are good pitchers who have thrown in some tough situations over the years. They are a microcosm of our team; our team is built on a lot of good players who in time could be great players.”

North will depend on deep pitching, which is looking more and more like the way to go with games getting backed up by such a late start because of a wet and cold spring.

“With the way the weather is going, whoever wins the title will have to go five or six pitchers deep every week,” North coach Dennis Kehrer said. “We don’t have 1A horses like Donovin or Lass, but we have three 1B pitchers, three kids (Luke Mitchell, Ben Kolkmeyer and Levon Smith) who are just a rung down the ladder, and some other kids who can get the job done as well.”

Page 2 of 2 - East is the hardest team to peg after going 17-10 (12-6) last year and winning its first regional title in 21 years.

“Sometimes those programs that have been beaten on for awhile, all you need is one good year to change the culture,” Weber said. “They may not win as many games as they did last year, but they should be in every game.”

An extra-inning loss to North and a last-pitch loss at Boylan was all that kept East out of at least third place last year. The E-Rabs struggled to hit and didn’t strike many batters out, but played great defense.

“We don’t walk a lot of guys either; that tends to come back and bite you,” East coach Jim Williams said. “Runs are going to come here and there. We have to do the fundamental things all the time. It’s up to our hard work to pay off in the field.

“We’ve got most everybody back. It should be interesting. We’ll see what happens.

“We have been down for so long here, we have to prove to people we’re here to play and be competitive. We don’t set any goals to win conference. We just set goals to get better every day, every game, and not be afraid to play anybody.”